Trash Talk at Milpitas' Recyclery Educates, Entertains

Cathryn Domrose

Published 4:00 am, Friday, June 11, 1999

1999-06-11 04:00:00 PDT MILPITAS -- They may grumble, but every week dutiful household recyclers pile bottles and cans into one bin, newspapers in another. They set the bins out on the sidewalk or dump them into pick-up containers. And they never give it another thought. The Recyclery in Milpitas provides much compost for thought about the value of reusing waste. With a $1 million education center, which features observation windows onto its recycling operation, the Recyclery provides an entertaining look at what happens to bottles, cans and papers after the trucks pick them up.

Visitors follow a path of blue footprints to the education center and the observation area.

One side of the education center is covered with the Wall of Garbage, made from objects retrieved from the landfill. Old furniture, broken toys, beer bottles, mattresses, faded cushions, plastic detergent bottles, rusted bicycle wheels and burnt-out appliances are piled behind a mesh fence.

The wall represents the amount of garbage one person produces in six years or what the people of Santa Clara County produce in three minutes. It's meant to emphasize how much waste people produce, tour guide Heather Zinn told a group who visited the center recently.

"There's some really gross things in there," she said, "but there are things that shouldn't have been thrown away. A lot of what we throw away really isn't garbage."

Some members of the group zapped items in the wall with a laser gun; a bell rang when the laser hit something that could be repaired or recycled. Some peered into a box of red worms that turn food leavings into compost in less than a week.

Related Stories

WHERE TRASH GOES

Others looked at exhibits showing how methane gas is collected and how recycled plastic bottles get shredded into flakes, melted and spun into fiber.

"Five plastic bottles produce enough fiber fill to stuff a small ski jacket," announced a sign at the display.

The Recyclery is full of such tidbits. Signs inform visitors that each pound of recycled aluminum cans saves 10.5 gallons of oil and that the interior of the average car contains about 60 pounds of recycled newsprint paper.

The Wall of Garbage is hung with bits of trashy history. According to those, the Greeks invented the first garbage dump. Turn-of-the century Londoners tossed their trash into the Thames. And in 1400, garbage piled up so high outside the gates of Paris, citizens couldn't see over it to defend the city.

Such facts fascinate youngsters, the largest group of visitors to the education center, said Cheryl Golden, a spokeswoman for Browning- Ferris Industries. The Recyclery opened in 1991 to promote recycling and reusing waste, and BFI operates the Recyclery and the Newby Island Sanitary Landfill on the edge of the South Bay.

MOUNTAINS OF GARBAGE

Young children are especially intrigued by the Recyclery's viewing area, said Mike Blinn, the company's receptionist and informal tour guide. Anyone who enjoys a construction site will be drawn to the views of huge trucks dumping loads of bottles and paper, as smaller trucks push the material into piles.

Visitors, sitting on benches made of recycled plastic milk jugs, can watch the action through large windows. A video screen shows workers in rubber gloves sorting paper and cardboard into seven bins. Bottles and cans are sorted with giant magnets and blowers, as well as by hand.

"When they get enough material into the hopper, they just squish it into a big bale," Blinn said.

The bales, automatically tied with wire, are shipped to companies that use recycled materials. Farmers buy compost made from yard trimmings. The Recyclery also sells bags of compost for $2.

Besides crunching bottles, cans, paper, foam and other materials into bales for sale, the Recyclery produces and sells compost from yard trimmings and methane gas from its landfill. It also buys aluminum, cardboard, glass, plastics and paper at a public Buy-Back Center.

Since 1991, the Recyclery has recycled enough metal to make 17,000 cars and enough paper to save six square miles of trees, Blinn said.

And, officials said, it has generated plenty of good feelings about setting those recycling bins on the curb.

RECYCLING EDUCATION CENTER

Directions

Take the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to I-80 south. Take I-880 south to the Dixon Landing Road exit in Milpitas. Turn right; the Recyclery is at 1601 Dixon Landing Road, just off the exit.

ATTRACTIONS

The education center features a Wall of Garbage, a box of composting worms and other interactive displays.

ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS

Children of all ages will love watching big trucks push around piles of paper and bottles at the materials recovery facility. Elementary school children will appreciate the Wall of Garbage and garbage history facts in the education center.